The American automotive market is dropping so fast that next month we could see an annualized sales rate under 14 million units.

As recently as 2006, we sold more than 17 million vehicles in the American market. But last month sales sold at an annualized rate of only 14.2 million. And next month it’s likely it will drop below that.

The reason is that there’s practically no inventory left of small cars. Buyers cleaned out dealers’ lots last month. And while automakers are scrambling to boost production of small cars, that will take months to get going.

And so, as bad as the market looks now, it’s going to get worse. And what they call the SAARS rate, or the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, is likely to fall somewhere in the 13 million range, when they close the books on June sales.